Reflection for Sunday October 11, Twenty- eight Sunday in Ordinary Time: Matthew 22:1-14

Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables saying, “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. 

A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’ Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.  

The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ 

The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. 

Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

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Reflection:

The story is told about a man that died; a few moments after his death he saw two places one was a fiery place with souls in terrible torment. The other one was a bright and heavenly place with joyous souls. A booming voice asked him: Where would you choose to be? The man quickly replied: I chose the bright and heavenly place.  

When he was about to enter the pearly gates he was barred from entering. After which a loud voice boomed and said: Why are you trying to desperately enter now? Do you remember when you were still alive? I invited you to church for countless times but you did not give any importance to my invitations. You gave more priority to your temporal and worldly activities.  

In our gospel Jesus gives a parable about a wedding feast, the king ordered the servants to invite the chosen guests. But they were all busy so they ignored the invitation they instead went to their usual daily engagements. One went to his farm, another to his business.  The others that were invited had the temerity to kill the messengers of the king.  

The king represents God and He perpetually invites us all to be present in the weeding banquet that is the celebration of the Holy Mass. We oftentimes encounter people urging us to be present at Holy Mass, to read the bible, to pray and be connected with God. They are the messengers or servants of God sent by Him for us to be closer to Him. Why? Because God wants us to be His close friends this is the primary reason why He always invites us to His feast.  

But what is our reaction to His perpetual invitation? We often times ignore it for the reason that we are so much busy with the things of this temporary world. We ignore it until we become aware of our own mortality so we are forced to know and discover God because we are already in dire need of Him. 

We are right now inside an extra-ordinary time caused by the covid-19 pandemic. So many of us are not able to be physically present at Holy Mass. But there are other ways for us to respond to this call. For example we can watch Holy Mass online, on TV or listen via radio. Therefore, if we would desire to respond we can actually respond but most often than not our reason is we have no time.  

But the irony of it all is we create time for the things of this world but we can’t create time for God. Why wait for that time when we are already sickly or near death before we respond?   Why not respond now to His invitation while we are still in the pink of health? – Marino J. Dasmarinas